Death of the Critic

Sequels and Reviews

Earlier this week, we publish an article about sequels and how they are viewed in relation to their preceding works, and we wanted to take the time to clarify our position on how we address this concern when writing a review for a sequel. While we do our best to look at each work on its own merits, we cannot discount significant advances or steps back compared to other works within the same franchise.

First and foremost, our rule for reviews has always been, and will always be, that if our reviewer can defend their review and score to the editor, then we will back this review. That being said, when we are scoring a game, we attempt to do so based off of the quality of the individual game itself. If a game is average it will be a 2.5/5. This frame of reference allows us to score each game individually based off what they were attempting to accomplish. Resident Evil 5 would be scored based off of how good of an action co-op game, whereas Resident Evil would be scored as how good of a survival horror game it is. This allows us to review each game fairly.

The text of the review itself is where we can comment on the quality of the title in comparison to other titles in its series or in its genre. This way we can call out the improvements a game like Titanfall 2 made over its predecessor, or the steps back a game like Halo 5 made, or the differences between albums like To Pimp a Butterflyand DAMN. It allows us to discuss the complexities of the game, and it truly does encapsulate the full thoughts and conclusions of the reviewer on the title, and we always encourage reading this to form your own conclusions on the project.

We are always trying to improve our review system for the better. If you have any feedback or suggestions on how we could improve, we would love to hear from you either in the comments below or at contact@deathofthecritic.com.____________________________________________

Tom has been writing about media since he was a senior in high school. He likes long walks on the beach, dark liquor, and when characters reload guns in action movies.